Food, Sleep, Sex, & Play

Welcome to my latest thought experiment. Play is natural, work is not.

I have decided that play is a natural positive activity for humans and this can be shown in part by comparing it with the other natural positive activities of humans, of which I have come up with four. These four are based on what I can think of as the only things humans want to do and enjoy doing - beyond the fact that they contribute to a healthy life. These four are eating, sleeping, having sex, and playing. 

Cyber “Stalking” (Not *That* Kind of Stalking)

I had an interesting conversation with a fellow grad student at the AAAs about “stalking” people online. This is the word we used, though I want to make clear that we were not in fact talking about scary, dangerous, creepy, actual stalking. Rather we were talking about using the Internet to gather information about people we were curious about. Still sounds kind of like stalking doesn’t it? Well, since we both agreed on that point and could not think of another commonly accepted word to discuss the topic, we talked about “stalking” people at the conference.

AAA Series: Conference Tidal Waves

I just returned from the AAAs in Chicago (the American Anthropological Association meetings – not the other AAA) and I am again motivated with ideas for this blog; not to mention flooded with ideas for my dissertation, future research, places I’d like to work when I graduate, and a million other academic, professional, and personal insights for my life. This is why I love conferences. In the next few days, as my mind mulls over all that I learned over the last 4 days, I will be posting a series on my experiences, insights, and new questions.

However … as great as this intellectual stimulation was, in truth, it wasn't all roses and my love/hate relationship with conferences continues.